ING Groep NV Sells 206,710 Shares of Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN)

ING Groep NV decreased its holdings in Accenture plc (NYSE:ACN - Free Report) by 50.4% during the 3rd quarter, according to its most recent disclosure with the Securities & Exchange Commission. The firm owned 203,763 shares of the information technology services provider's stock after selling 206,710 shares during the period. ING Groep NV's holdings in Accenture were worth $72,026,000 at the end of the most recent quarter.

Several other institutional investors and hedge funds have also recently bought and sold shares of ACN. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 5.0% in the first quarter. Kingsview Wealth Management LLC now owns 9,275 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $3,215,000 after buying an additional 445 shares during the period. Private Portfolio Partners LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 4.5% in the first quarter. Private Portfolio Partners LLC now owns 926 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $321,000 after buying an additional 40 shares during the period. Leo Wealth LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 5.9% in the first quarter. Leo Wealth LLC now owns 2,377 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $821,000 after buying an additional 133 shares during the period. Brighton Jones LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 1.3% in the first quarter. Brighton Jones LLC now owns 18,117 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $6,279,000 after buying an additional 234 shares during the period. Finally, Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC raised its stake in Accenture by 6.8% in the first quarter. Dorsey & Whitney Trust CO LLC now owns 8,145 shares of the information technology services provider's stock valued at $2,823,000 after buying an additional 522 shares during the period. Institutional investors own 75.14% of the company's stock.

Insider Activity at Accenture

In related news, CAO Melissa A. Burgum sold 458 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Thursday, October 17th. The stock was sold at an average price of $373.25, for a total transaction of $170,948.50. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 9,777 shares of the company's stock, valued at $3,649,265.25. This trade represents a 4.47 % decrease in their position. The sale was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is available at this hyperlink. Also, CEO Julie Spellman Sweet sold 9,000 shares of the firm's stock in a transaction on Monday, October 21st. The stock was sold at an average price of $376.16, for a total value of $3,385,440.00. Following the transaction, the chief executive officer now directly owns 20,324 shares of the company's stock, valued at approximately $7,645,075.84. This represents a 30.69 % decrease in their ownership of the stock. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. Insiders have sold a total of 36,298 shares of company stock valued at $13,372,661 in the last 90 days. 0.07% of the stock is owned by corporate insiders.

Accenture Stock Down 2.2 %

Shares of ACN stock traded down $8.12 during trading hours on Thursday, reaching $362.10. The company's stock had a trading volume of 3,503,029 shares, compared to its average volume of 2,726,620. Accenture plc has a fifty-two week low of $278.69 and a fifty-two week high of $387.51. The company has a market capitalization of $226.37 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 31.79, a PEG ratio of 3.15 and a beta of 1.25. The firm's 50 day simple moving average is $354.85 and its 200-day simple moving average is $326.48.

Accenture (NYSE:ACN - Get Free Report) last released its quarterly earnings data on Thursday, September 26th. The information technology services provider reported $2.79 earnings per share for the quarter, beating the consensus estimate of $2.78 by $0.01. Accenture had a return on equity of 26.83% and a net margin of 11.20%. The company had revenue of $16.41 billion for the quarter, compared to the consensus estimate of $16.37 billion. During the same quarter last year, the business posted $2.71 EPS. Accenture's revenue for the quarter was up 2.6% on a year-over-year basis. Sell-side analysts predict that Accenture plc will post 12.77 earnings per share for the current year.

Accenture declared that its board has authorized a stock buyback program on Thursday, September 26th that allows the company to repurchase $4.00 billion in shares. This repurchase authorization allows the information technology services provider to purchase up to 1.8% of its shares through open market purchases. Shares repurchase programs are often an indication that the company's management believes its stock is undervalued.

Accenture Increases Dividend

The company also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Friday, November 15th. Investors of record on Thursday, October 10th will be issued a dividend of $1.48 per share. This is an increase from Accenture's previous quarterly dividend of $1.29. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, October 10th. This represents a $5.92 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 1.63%. Accenture's dividend payout ratio (DPR) is 51.79%.

Wall Street Analysts Forecast Growth

A number of brokerages have recently weighed in on ACN. Barclays increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $415.00 and gave the stock an "overweight" rating in a research note on Monday, September 30th. StockNews.com lowered Accenture from a "buy" rating to a "hold" rating in a research note on Thursday, October 24th. TD Cowen upgraded Accenture from a "hold" rating to a "buy" rating and increased their target price for the stock from $321.00 to $400.00 in a research note on Monday, September 30th. JPMorgan Chase & Co. lowered their target price on Accenture from $376.00 to $370.00 and set an "overweight" rating on the stock in a research note on Tuesday, September 24th. Finally, Susquehanna increased their target price on Accenture from $350.00 to $360.00 and gave the stock a "neutral" rating in a research note on Friday, September 27th. Ten research analysts have rated the stock with a hold rating and thirteen have assigned a buy rating to the stock. Based on data from MarketBeat, the company presently has an average rating of "Moderate Buy" and an average price target of $368.23.

Accenture Profile

Accenture plc, a professional services company, provides strategy and consulting, industry X, song, and technology and operation services worldwide. The company offers application services, including agile transformation, DevOps, application modernization, enterprise architecture, software and quality engineering, data management; intelligent automation comprising robotic process automation, natural language processing, and virtual agents; and application management services, as well as software engineering services; strategy and consulting services; data and analytics strategy, data discovery and augmentation, data management and beyond, data democratization, and industrialized solutions comprising turnkey analytics and artificial intelligence (AI) solutions; metaverse; and sustainability services.